my thoughts on stamps, stamp collecting, philately in general and maybe a few other topics !

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Hello, tonight I hope you will find the following of
interest even though these are pretty common stamps with no real value. I am using them to make a few points. I read
lots of posts on various boards / stamp groups asking for a value of some stamp
or stamps. That is impossible to do just from an image, and wisely such
requests are politely referred to stamp clubs or the like.

Let’s use these as example as I have seen posts asking for a
value for same or similar stamps. There
are some things you can see from the image and some you cannot.

The first (left) stamp is inverted watermark. You cannot see it
from the image obviously, but there is a hint it might not be a regular (upright
watermark) stamp since it has short ( of
clipped) perfs on the right margin. So
when sorting your GB perhaps you will see this type of short perf and decide to
have a closer look at the watermark.

What about the second (middle) stamp?
Another boring copy of SG 462, albeit it is mint unhinged, but again you
cannot see that from the image. And, it is quite well centered. To see that centering look at the third (right)
stamp, which has a very thin right margin. Not that well centered. You might
also think the right margin perfs are short, they are, but this is a regular
upright watermark copy.

These aspects are very basic of course but perhaps start the
thinking about asking for a value of stamps just from an image. And, there are
many more aspects; I have not tried to
address one very obvious difference; perforation differences, which also cannot
accurately be determined from a standalone image.

Big hint: get a decent catalogue and learn about the stamps
for the country / period or whatever you are collecting. It will add so much
pleasure to your philatelic adventure.